Arroyos want higher penalty vs cemetery robbers

MANILA, Philippines - Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Arroyo and his mother, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, are seeking higher penalties for robberies in cemeteries.

The Bicol congressman has filed Bill 6606 or the proposed Anti-Grave Robbers Act of 2012, which the former president co-authored.

The younger Arroyo said the desecration of the dead comes in many forms, one of which is grave robbery, which “has always been a problem in the country.”

“In Philippine society, we have always paid our respects to our dead. More often than not, we adorn many gifts in their final resting places or provide them with sprawling mausoleums to commemorate their lives,” he said.

He said the damage done by cemetery robbers could be considered immeasurable “as it dishonors the dead and causes anguish to those who survived them.”

Arroyo and his mother noted that as Filipinos eagerly await the time to remember and honor their dead, in many cases, they find out their graves have been raided by thieves and robbers.

“This type of theft must be severely addressed. It is the humble intent of Bill 6606 to create a separate act of robbery under the Revised Penal Code for the robbery of cemetery items or the ones committed in cemeteries, graveyards or burial grounds,” they said.

They proposed to insert the following new section in the code: “Art. 302-A. Grave Robbery. In cases enumerated in Articles 299 and 302, when the robbery consists in the taking of all or part of a tomb, coffin, monument, gravestone, or all part of a commemorative, decorative, or other cemetery-related article or committed in a cemetery, graveyard or burial ground, the culprit shall suffer the penalty next higher in degree than that prescribed in the said Articles.”

Article 299 provides for punishment of reclusion temporal (12 years to 20 years) if the value of the property taken by any armed robber from an uninhabited house or public building or edifice devoted to religious worship, exceeds P250.

If the offenders were not armed, the next lower penalty would be imposed.

On the other hand, Article 302 provides that for any robbery committed in an uninhabited place or in a building other than those mentioned in the first paragraph of Article 299, if the value of the property taken exceeds P250, the penalty would be prision correccional (six months to six years).

If the value of the property taken does not exceed P250, the penalty next lower in degree would be imposed.

The former president is currently detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City on a plunder case.

The Sandiganbayan had allowed her to visit her parents’ grave at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Fort Bonifacio yesterday, but according to her lawyer, poor health prompted her to cancel her visit.

She and her son Diosdado are seeking reelection in their respective districts in next year’s elections.

Elder son Juan Miguel or Mikey is finishing his third and last term as a congressman.

Mikey’s party-list group, Ang Galing Pinoy, which claims to represent security guards and tricycle drivers, has been disqualified from participating in next year’s elections.